They don't pay me enough to do the job of multiple people. Somehow I ended up playing the role of the IT department.
However, I must sadly turn to the real IT department when I can not fix something. This doesn't always sit well with people from the IT world. It seems as if they are worried that I single handily am solving all the computer problems in the world and there will be no reason for their existence on this planet.
When these problems come, they rarely come one at a time, rather all at once. There was a point today at which someone in a neighboring office was calling my name, I was on the phone while my call waiting was going off. At the same time I received 3 emails within 2 minutes, all needing my attention and there were 4 impatient men waiting for help with their computers.
Yet being the good employee I am, realizing that no additional compensation will come from my increased efforts, I managed the task of helping everyone out. I started with the person in the neighboring office. He deems respect and attention and everyone recognizes this.
The phone? It can wait. God bless the person who invented voicemail. "Hi, This is Judy. I'm obviously dealing with a problem that trumps talking with you right now. You'll have to wait your turn. I'll call you back if I don't run away first."
Turns out the call from the neighboring office led me to another telephone call. This being a person in the same location as me, but in another building. He too had an IT issue that needed assistance. His problem required a higher level of expertise, well maybe not, just a connection to a database that I don't have. I'm not IT remember? This call requires a follow up call tomorrow.
The 2 phone calls - the first, the IT guy who accomplishes the tasks that I don't have the ability to do. He doesn't mind my helping out, on account of his shear laziness. He will admit this to you. The second, an IT explanation of how file size relates to picture resolution. "8 MP pictures are too big to email?". Gee who would have guessed... So this explanation was quick and painless quite possibly because the person on the other end was female and less words were required.
Insert my boss.... he too had a problem. Except something was different about this one... what is it? Oh yeah, it actually relates to my assigned position. This issue goes to the top of the list. This problem, a lack of understand involving our new database. A phone call must be made to someone who is smarter than me regarding this subject. Another follow up awaiting my attention.
Now to the 4 men waiting. The first man, his computer says "Network is remote". Hmm. Haven't seen this before. Call IT person #1 (who doesn't mind the help), got his voicemail. Stupid person who invented voicemail. I didn't want a machine, I wanted the human who is assigned this number.
Ok, IT person #2... "Glad to help you, kiddo". Kiddo? I just turned 27. At what age will I no longer be called kiddo? There must be some limit. He proved to be no help. I did a bit of exploring and discovered on my own what the issue was. Who needs IT anyway?
In the middle of this, one of the 4 guys is a self proclaimed IT expert. Self proclaimed because everyone else sees that he knows nothing. Of the idiotic statements he made, my favorite is "2 firewalls aren't a bad thing". MMM....no. Wrong. Try again. Maybe in the case of a physical firewall, but not the computer firewall type. Luckily, someone saw my mounting frustration and convinced this man to accompany him to another building. Yay!
On to the other 3. I could solve this in one step, thanks in part to the few moments I pay attention to my husband when he goes into massive geek ramblings. Windows XP trying to install Service Pack 3 with 512 MB of RAM. Huh? This won't work. Another phone call... IT guy #1 agreed with my conclusion that new laptops were in order. Well, they were new a few years ago. Anyway, they are better than the current laptops. I aborted the installation of the Service Pack. This will have to wait until IT guy #1 can come with new laptops and setup new laptops. another skill that I cannot perform.
Strangely, some alarm must go off at 3pm that only men over 50 can hear. I know this because all the men in our office scatter around this time, much to my delight. My crazy day was nearing its end. A quiet silence fell upon the office. The end of my obligation for the day had come and I left, rather I ran as fast as legally possible.
Tomorrow will quite possibly go the same.